Man Blew Air Horn In Teen's Face For Using Phone At Dinner Table, Injured Her For Life

By: Mackenzie Wright | December 21, 2018

One young teen is suffering from a painful and debilitating hearing condition that has no cure. The condition has forced her to withdraw from school and has completely changed her life.

The condition was a result of her friend's father blowing an air horn in her face because she was using the cell phone at the dinner table.

Children can sometimes break rules. They can even be insensitive and rude. It's an adult's job to correct a child when the child is doing something wrong, but some adults take punishment too far.

Cindy Redmond has had her entire life changed in an instant because her friend's stepfather got a little over-zealous with his attempts to discipline her.

The 14-year-old girl was at a friend's house sitting at the table. The food hadn't come out yet, and the girl got a call on her cell phone. She answered the call, and the annoyed stepfather pulled out an air horn and blew it in her face.

Cindy says she felt a pop in her head, and experienced excruciating pain. After a medical examination, a doctor diagnosed the teen with a rare disorder known as hyperacusis. The condition is very rare and is believed to be due to neurological or inner ear damage.

With hyperacusis, everyday noises that are a mere annoyance to most people will cause burning, stabbing pain in Cindy's ears. Common noises like babies crying, sirens blaring, dogs barking or people shouting result in debilitating pain.

The condition is incurable, and because it's so painful, Cindy had to be withdrawn from school to be home-schooled. She will not be able to ever attend school with her friends again. She'll have to sit out parties, family functions, she'll never be able to go to concerts and shows. She may not even ever be able to get a job.

Cindy spends most of the day wearing noise-blocking headphones. She has to use an earpiece that produces 'white noise' as a form of sound therapy.

Because of the condition, she is in moderate pain throughout the entire day, but one high-pitched noise can send her reeling for more than an hour in debilitating agony.

"For her 14th birthday she wanted to go to the aquarium. Twenty minutes in she was sobbing from the pain," said her mother, Laurie.

According to Laurie, the stepfather who blew the air horn in Cindy's face and ruined her life has never apologized. Some of Cindy's friends believe that she's faking her condition. The stepfather doesn't allow his daughter to see Cindy anymore.

Laurie says that she and her daughter are not planning to seek legal action. Instead, they're focusing on forgiveness and moving on.

"It was a lot of anger at first and then turned into sadness realizing that my entire world had crumbled," said Cindy. She now is just taking things one day at a time, and her future is unknown.